Interesting. So are you asking if you should cut out the wash and fold part of the business and in the space where you did you wash and fold put in new machines instead?

From what Jordan has said in the podcast or youtube videos, i forget which, he thinks there is a bigger upside in the wash and fold I think. Maybe he’ll chime in.

I’m not really experienced but it seems pretty risky to me to cut out 30% of your business and try to build up the self service more than 3o% to replace it. Why not do both?

Hey Corey!
Super interesting! I actually brought it up on the podcast this week because I thought it was so interesting. I’m really hoping a few people chime in on it!

What I hear you saying is that you value the simplicity of laundromats. Am I understanding that correctly? It’s one of the big reasons I got into the industry so I get that.

With that said, taking a 30% cut and hoping you can increase walk-in traffic by that much at least seems like an uphill battle. Don’t count on that many people coming to your laundromat just because you put in more machines. You may get some new customers because of it, but probably not 30%.

So, the question becomes, what is your strategy for increasing business at least 30% to cover the lost WDF business? And, if you do come up with a strategy, could it be implemented while maintaining the WDF part of the business?

If so, it would probably be worth coming up with strategies to streamline the WDF part of the business to make management simpler and just enjoy the benefits of the increased business.

Those are my initial thoughts on it? What do you think?

This is an old thread, but I’m very interested in the topic…

I am also attracted to the laundry business due to its (potential) simplicity. I would be looking for a way to keep the WDF revenue, but simplify.

What if you could take WDF orders from customers and outsource the labor to another operator or commercial laundry? Similar to the relationship with a dry cleaners, you would be a drop store for WDF. You could market, acquire new customers, and maintain the customer relationships. But not necessarily take on the task of doing the laundry.

Pros:
Your operation is simpler than it was before.
You could keep the WDF customer base.
You would still get to keep a portion of the revenue.
You could even scale up your WDF business without having to make many operational changes.
You could always do the laundry in the future if you wanted to keep more profit.

Cons:
You are giving up some profit.
You are giving up some control over the the WDF operation.

My question to someone more familiar with operating WDF…
Is this happening in the real world?
Would a commercial laundry ever take somebody like us as a client?
Will there be enough spread between the price the customer pays and the price we pay the commercial laundry to make being a middle-man worth the effort?

One possibility is to give the WDF business to current employee.
The employee becomes a business owner (the WDF) instead of an employee , pays to use your machines like self-serve customers and provides his or her own supplies.
In return they still keep your store clean and semi-attended.
Now you don’t have the payroll/employee issues anymore yet have someone in the store to keep it clean and deal with customer issues. Now your former employee is a caretaker (at no charge) and a very regular self-serve customer.
Just a thought.